Frihetens rike [Elektronisk resurs] Wikipedianer om sin praktik, sitt produktionssätt och kapitalismen

• This study is about voluntary productive activities in digital networks and on digital platforms that often are described as pleasur­able. The aim of the study is to relate the peer producers’ perceptions of their activities on a micro level in terms of play, game, work and labour, to their views on Wikipedia’s relation to capitalism on a macro level, to compare the identified ideological formations on both levels and how they relate to each other, and finally compare the identi­fied ideological formations with contemporary Marxist theory on cognitive capitalism. The intention is to perform a critical evaluation of the economic role of peer production in society.Qualitative and semi-structured interviews with eight Wikipedians active within the Swedish language version of Wikipedia con­stitute the empirical base of the study together with one public lecture by a Wikipedian on the encyclopaedia and a selection of pages in the encyclopaedia that are text analysed. The transcribed interviews have been analysed using a version of ideological analysis as it has been developed by the Gothenburg School. The views on the peer producing activities on the micro level has been analysed in a dialecti­cal way but is also grounded in a specific field model.Six ideological formations are identified in the empirical material. On the micro level: the peripheral, bottom-up- and top-down-formation, on the macro level: the Californian alikeness ideology, communism of capital and capitalism of communism. Communism of capital has two sides to it: one stresses the synergies and the other the conflicts between the two phenomena. The formations on the macro level conform broadly to contemporary Marxist theory, but there are important differ­ences as well. The study results in a hypothesis that the critical side of communism of capital and the peripheral and bottom-up-formation could help to further a more sustainable capitalism of communism, and counteract a deeper integra­tion of the top-down-formation with Californian alikeness ideology. The latter is the main risk of capitalist co-optation of the peer produc­tion that is underway as the manifestly dominant formations on the macro level are Californian alikeness ideology and communism of capital. 

Ämnesord

Social Sciences  (ssif)

Media and Communications  (ssif)

Information Studies  (ssif)

Samhällsvetenskap  (ssif)

Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap  (ssif)

Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap  (ssif)

Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap  (uu)

Library and Information Science  (uu)

Genre

government publication  (marcgt)

Indexterm och SAB-rubrik

Wikipedia

Peer Production

Crowdsourcing

Digital Labour

Digital Work

Wikipedians

Ideology

Ideology Analysis

Historical Materialism

Marxism

Autonomist Marxism

Capitalism

Cognitive Capitalism

Communism of Capital

Capitalism of Communism

Play

Playing

Work

Working

Gaming

Labour

Labouring

Mode of Production

Wikipedia

wikipedianer

jämlik produktion

marxism

autonom marxism

historiematerialism

produktionssätt

ideologi

ideologianalys

kommunism

kapitalism

kognitiv kapitalism

kapitalets kommunism

kommunismens kapitalism

lek

tillverkning

tävling

arbete

lönarbete

gåvoekonomi

encyklopedier

uppslagsverk

immateriellt arbete